Jerry J. Fortin

Good catch! Actually I hope for this to happen but don't expect it at all.

Canada is a special case, one not well understood by its own citizens let alone the rest of the world. Canada has become a vassal nation of the United States for a number of reasons, and yet our people still believe they are free. Foreign interests dominate our industries, and foreign interests dominate our policies. Our very culture is subject to the approval of organizations outside of Canada. We stand at a crossroads, and the decisions made over the next few days will impact this nation for years to come.

On Wednesday when Stephan and Jack visit the Governor General to declare a coalition, all the cards will not be put on the table. The only thing Canadians will know for sure is that Harper will no longer be the Prime Minister. It will be at least a week before any politician aside from Harper makes any kind of public statement that would provide any insight to the new governments plan. You can expect an NDP platform of breaks for citizens tempered with a Liberal platform of breaks for business. In terms of foreign policies you can expect nothing changing for at least a year, but after that gloves will come off. Canada will take a protectionist stand and find itself at odds with the USA. Canadians need this change to protect their jobs and families from world events. We will need to remake our economy from the ground up. Watch for internal consumption methods to bolster the economy. Watch Canada take a lead role in automated production facilities. Canadians will eventually become the designers and technicians of a new means of production. Things are about to change if Harper losses this election, and that may well happen.

Governments are buying mortgages, that is a fact. Tax payers are being held to ransom with ever growing debt, and that debt is to the banks! It is far worst than you folks suspect. The banks are dumping bad loans and having the governments buy them up. Witness the first glimpse at corporate governance.

Vote for progress? No party is advocating eliminating income taxes. No party is advocating a functional health care system. No party is advocating a filling the holes in the justice system. No party is advocating fixed election dates, electoral recall, and elected senate seats, as in reform government. Just what sort of progress are folks talking about. Those clowns in government look like a daycare centre gone wild when I watch Question Period, so I hold now hope for their suddenly deciding to do anything right.

Harper said that our banks were in great shape, no need to bail them out. That was what, a week ago? Now we hand over 25 billion to banks enjoying record breaking profits. Something smells very bad. It looks like a smoke screen to me.

Sadly most Canadians believe what they read and are easily swayed by their newspapers.

We will know what happens on Tuesday. Before that is mere speculation. Most folks expect a minority Conservative government, I however believe that the Liberals and New Democrats will form an alliance of sorts to prevent that from happening if they have sufficient seats to accomplish the task.

Improving our educational system would involve enhancing the existing system by altering the scholastic year providing less time off in the summer and instead rescheduling that time off throughout the year in a series of breaks. In other words schools open all year long. In addition the studies needs to reflect aptitude and provide alternatives. By this I mean that arts, sports, and trades need to be added in order to provide opportunity for those less able to take advantage of the regular studies. Schools represent the ideal place to base community recreational facilities and need to be accessible all year long. In terms of health care, the system needs to be revised in order to provide accessible care within the community on a 24/7 basis, and once again the schools are the ideal place to place these kinds of facilities. Health care needs to be delivered outside of hospitals where far too many people go to see doctors. The cost of seeing a doctor at a hospital are many times more expense from an emergency room than they are in a community centre. There are two factors working against us with health care, that is cost and delivery. A way must be found to reduce costs and improve delivery. Having said this, delivery is more complicated than merely training doctors especially considering that the reality is such that nurses do more of the actual work than the doctors do. Training all of the professionals in the field is indeed a factor and must be carefully considered. There is another component hiding in the details and that is effective diagnosis. To that end there are many new types of equipment available that we have far to little of to accomplish the tasks at hand. So with regards to health care more is indeed better.

The advancement of society means the progression of freedom and peace to the advantage of the individual. Standards of living and costs of living are mere measures of the success of that society and the cost of doing so. The advancements that most citizens would agree with would be improvements to education and health care, reductions in taxation, increases in employment and enhanced democracy.

I applaud those Albertan brothers and sisters of mine. I believe that we have THE RIGHT TO VOICE OUR OPINION, as indeed do the citizens of Quebec.

Why lend the banks a dime when they are still posting record profits? Why buy the mortgages simply because they are federally insured? Can anyone see that the governments want to spend tax dollars? Can anybody see that actions undertaken by our government leave us responsible for the results? It is time to begin to understand that the transfer of wealth that occurs through the governments revenue streams benefit the most affluent citizens of the nation. It is time to understand that the government has and does exceed its authority on a regular basis. It is time to understand that the debt incurred by governments represent a very real cost to each and every citizen.

So according to you, the government should take over all facets of the economy utilizing the tax payers as their own private financial institute? So according to you, the high risk facing the banks is somehow translated into low risk through this government action? So according to you, the debt servicing having changed hands from the free market to the public pursue is beneficial to the pubic? Why don't we just convert to communism and be done with it? Private enterprise has risk, that is a fact. It is not the function of government to mitigate those risks at tax payers expense.

You folks are missing the point. The government is borrowing money that adds to our debt. Servicing that debt costs money, more tax dollars. So lets take a step back into the problem. The government is borrowing money to buy assets that represent such a high risk to investors and are paying such a low rate of return that they now represent a bargain to the tax paying citizens? Do you really believe that? Who benefits? What is the return on investment? Where are the profits? When will this actually take place, before or after the election? Why are these assets being sold off? Ask yourself these questions and then consider that others have done so as well and now have some concerns with the plan.

I used to love this country, when it was ours. Now after the advent of free trade that isn't, we have become a vassal of the United States.

The bailout did not cause the credit crunch. Risky investments did. The bailout is simply going to keep doors open and credit flowing for the system. Which of course damned near every US citizens needs. The bailout plan is a waste of money that will cause more problems than it solves. Once the well has been advertised everyone will drink from it.

Where did that 25 billion come from? It didn't seem to be laying around anywhere visible to me. I will suggest that the government BORROWED the money, and that the tax payer is supposed to pay it back.

Let me put it this way. Most Americans expected that federal intervention would stabilize the stock markets and protect their investments. What I think is of no account as I am not an American. Even so the federal move was in fact designed to bailout a great many financial institutions that found themselves in grave peril from attempting to profit from risky loans. The impact to the stock market in terms of financial institutions was very nearly catastrophic. The effects are now spilling over into the credit market and causing a crunch there. The cause is not relevant in as much as what you are watching the greatest capitalistic nation on earth apply a socialistic solution to attempt to preserve the wealth of the most affluent of individuals at tax payers expense. The spin has been horrific, and yet the reality is simply that the United States Federal Government has taken a hard left turn to prevent harm to a ring wing enterprise. Truth is in fact stranger than fiction.

Debt is the issue that overshadows everything else. Increasing taxation is the last thing that needs to be done, not the first. All program spending, every dime of our money needs to be looked at IN FULL VIEW OF THE PUBLIC. This is our money we are talking about here! The government is a servant of the people, they must obey the will of the people.

Politicians don't make or break economies. They can affect them to a degree, and they can control them to a degree, but they simply don't make that much of a difference. Usually the meddling that they do with the economy costs tax payers a lot of money and the impact to the intended industries are minimal at best. What you see going on right now is a case in point. Even after the American bailout plan the market wasn't suddenly fixed now was it. The problem we are now facing stems form the monetary system and its regulation and administration it is not related to resource shortages or labour shortages, so production isn't the issue. Supply and delivery are subject to demand, so demand and the origin of the demand have more impact. Ever hear of the phrase corner the market? This issue is far more complex than even the most astute students of economics are capable of understanding. The sheer magnitude of variables makes mathematical projections invalid. In short the markets and the national economies have for all intents and purposes what can be described as minds of their own. I don't think you can rely on politicians to fix the problems, but go ahead and believe what you want.

The debt is the millstone around our necks, of that there is no doubt. Every single penny of surplus should go toward debt reduction. Even so that is not enough, what needs to happen is that the government actually plan a debt reduction strategy that would see revenue injected on a regular and planned basis over and above the scheduled payments required. It is not nearly enough to simply make the payments if you desire to shorten the period of indebtedness you must make alternative arrangements that exceed the payment schedule. Any child in high school can understand this and yet the government cannot seem to grasp the concept. Debt obstructs society's ability to deliver improvements by means of democratic selection. It takes money to do things and if you are in debt you don't buy stuff you cannot afford.

I must agree with most of what you are saying. A physical political expression, which is what you appear to seek can be found in the governance of Switzerland. It is known as direct democracy.

If StatsCan put out weekly reports on a variety of key areas then it could be fully utilized as an economic tool. Unfortunately it has been used as a political tool at public expense that serves no valid purpose other than to provide a means of accumulating data to be used in a propaganda effort on the part of the government.

So you suggest the banks have a liquidity issue and that becomes a problem for the tax paying citizen to resolve.

You folks are missing the point. StatsCan will produce the answers to the question given. The key is the question, not the answer.